Premise - When disgruntled General Francis Hummel (Ed Harris) takes over Alcatraz Island and holds San Francisco hostage with a battery of lethal VX gas rockets the FBI turns to an unusual source for help. They recruit the service of ex-SAS operative and former Alcatraz inmate, John Mason (Sean Connery) and their best chemical weapons expert Dr Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) to go to Alcatraz and shut Hummel down. 'The Rock' was the film that changed Nicolas Cage from being just an actor into being an internationally recognised movie star, it's the first film in his mid-to-late 90's action trilogy (along with 'Con Air' and 'Face/Off') and it was the first film he made after his Oscar winning performance in the superb 'Leaving Las Vegas'. Apart from all that, 'The Rock' is also a bloody good action film. It's a film that doesn't need to play to the lowest common denominator to be successful. There is no gratuitous nudity, little swearing and the film boasts some wonderful performances from a selection of some of the finest actors working in film today. That's not to say that the film isn't one hell of a ride. The film is quite long (clocking in at 136 minutes), but director Michael Bay keeps the pacing tight and the visuals slick enough to keep interest from waning. After 1994's 'Bad Boys' Bay was a hot commodity, the film had made big money at the box office and had made big stars of both Will Smith and Martin Lawerence. His lush visual style (which he inherits from his music video roots) was stamped all over the film. Indeed, as it is with 'The Rock'. Bay uses things like light, smoke and fire to great effect to give the film an incredibly stylish look. He has a love of slow motion, frenetic camera moves and obscure camera angles. It's a style that I appreciate and isn't a million miles away from the style of the likes of David Fincher (who also started out in music videos), although their movies are certainly at opposite ends of the spectrum. Yes, Bay can certainly handle action and 'The Rock' has no shortage of high octane set pieces to keep even the most jaded action fan satisfied. One of the highlights for me was the yellow Ferrari versus HumVee chase through the streets of San Francisco. Sure, it's nothing new, car chases through these streets have been seen in such films as 'Bullitt' and any number of 'Dirty Harry' movies. Bay takes it to a higher level though, throwing in major chaos and some nice comedy work from both Cage and Connery, 'I'm only borrowing your HumVee'. The action in 'The Rock' is exemplary, but as I touched on earlier the film has more to offer. Not least the sterling performances by the three leads. Cage had just won an Oscar and if you thought that an action film was a strange way to follow it up then you couldn't be more wrong. He does some excellent work here imbuing Goodspeed with an innocence that slowly ebbs away as the film goes on when he is forced to take matters into his own hands. Connery is also excellent as the grizzled, highly trained convict Mason. It's good to see Connery in an action film where he doesn't have a lady half his age to try and nip into bed with. A nice touch to have him born in Glasgow, but I would liked to have seen him correct the goon who called him English. Ah, well you can't have everything. ;) Best of all though is Ed Harris as General Hummel. Harris is a consummate actor as everybody knows and he brings great distinction to his role. Hummel is a man who's cause is just, but the methods he is using are wrong. Harris plays the role brilliantly displaying the torn nature of Hummel as he strongly believes in what he is doing. As far as the DVD package goes, it's a good 2-disc set. On disc one you have an anamorphic transfer of the film and an audio commentary (featuring Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, Michael Bay, Jerry Brukheimer and the Marine that was an advisor on the movie). The commentary was informative enough, but it's one of those tracks where the different cast members have went in and did their thing and an engineer cuts it together later (much like the terrible commentary on the 'Analyse This' disc). I would much prefer a group commentary so the various cast members can interact and bring something special to the track. On disc two are various features including a couple of excellent ones detailing the weapons training that the cast went through for the film by actual Marines. Also good is an in-depth documentary of Alcatraz, very informative and well presented. An interview with Jerry Bruckheimer is good and you also have the usual trailers, head promo's and outakes. The outakes are quite interesting as they show Ed Harris getting VERY annoyed because he can't spit out the dialogue in a scene, he practically smashes a prop in two. Overall you have a superlative DVD package that is the kind of set that DVD was made for. The Rock is an excellent action movie, that is raised above the standard fare by it's stylish look and superlative acting. It would be worth buying as a bog standard disc, but this excellent package makes it a must buy for any action fan.

8/10 for The Rock 8/10 for the DVD Package. Poster Quote - The Rock is cooking!